I stirred up another hornet’s nest on the Shocklines message board late yesterday and into today. Someone I consider an online friend made a post about the secretary of education pulling funding from PBS for some cartoon show that has two lesbian couples in it. He called for people to sign an online petition protesting that action. I stated that I don’t want PBS teaching my kids about sexuality — gay, straight or otherwise. And lo, the floodgates opened. Even Poppy Z. Brite came out of lurkdom to take a few shots.
The question was asked why having a lesbian couple would bring up the issue of sexuality. I thought that was a no-brainer. Now, I’ve never seen the show in question. I have to state that up front. All I know is what I read at Shocklines. The complaint was that the secretary of education pulled funding because the show has two lesbian couples in it. Based on that, what do we know about the four women? They are lesbians. How do you define a lesbian? I said women who have sex with women. Poppy says women who love women. Whatever. Lesbianism is a form of homosexuality, and what is the root word there? Sex.
As far as I can tell, I did not say anything negative about the gay community. And yet many gay members on the board seemed to take great offense to my statement that I don’t want my kids learning about sexual relationships through PBS.
If I turn on public television for my kids I want them to see programs that will help them learn the alphabet, how to count, not to steal, to stay away from drugs, etc. I don’t want them exposed to controversial ideas at a young age. This show apparently comes on in a time slot very soon after school lets out. Somebody said 4:30 p.m., but I don’t know what time zone that was.
And yes, homosexuality is a controversial idea. So is abortion. So is evolution, gun control, racism and a lot of other stuff. Sure, the kids will be exposed to that, but I don’t think seeing it depicted in an afternoon cartoon funded by tax dollars is appropriate, especially for the age group of kids the cartoon must target. Apparently, some or most of the characters are bunnies, so the show must be for really young kids. They are too young to be concerned with any form of sex or romantic love.
Somebody suggested kids would only see the situation depicted as some character having two mommies. Someone else said he simply explains a relative’s lesbianism as “Jane” being “Sally’s” girlfriend. I have to wonder if these people have been exposed to children much. The obvious next questions are going to be something like “Does she have two daddies, too?” “Why don’t I have two mommies?” “Why does Jane have a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend?” Children ask tons of questions and can be relentless in their pursuit of answers they can understand.
And it all comes back to the sex issue in the end. The couples were defined in the original post as lesbians. Not shopkeepers who happened to be gay. Not the parents of a character. They were defined by their sexuality.
And no, showing a straight couple does not push a heterosexual agenda, as some posters suggested. Straight is the norm. Straight couples make babies. Kids won’t blink an eye over a straight couple. Now, some will say, “What about kids living with a gay couple?” That’s a tiny segment of the population and I’d bet kids old enough to ask the question already realize their parents are different than most.
Somebody else asked if I knew I was straight prior to kissing a girl. It was never an issue. I never even considered the possibility of kissing a boy or thinking of boys like I did girls. And I was a horndog even as a child, sneaking kissing with Charlotte in kindergarten. She was a cutie. I was in junior high before I ever heard the concept of same-sex relationships.
I’m sure this post will offend some folks. Some of the Shocklines people actually read my blog and participated in that thread. To them I say again, my intent was not to offend. The reason for this post is because it’s bothered me that people I consider friends were offended. I don’t know if they were being overly sensitive and misinterpreting what I was trying to say and automatically reacting defensively, or if I’m really just so much of an intolerant jerk that I offend without even trying.
I don’t care who’s gay or who’s straight. But I care deeply about what my children are exposed to and I don’t want them learning about any kind of sexual relationships from a PBS cartoon.
Steven E. Wedel 
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